Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Still here, still pregnant! This little one seems to lack her mom's chronic neurotic punctuality. I know that she'll show her face when she's ready, but that doesn't mean I'm not going a little stir-crazy as the overdue days tick by. Luckily, we have cake. Lots of cake.

I've done plenty of Googling for tricks to induce labor, and "labor cake" was one of the things I found. While I find the prospect completely ridiculous, I can't really turn down such a compelling excuse to make a cake. The traditional Labor Cake is a doctored-up box of chocolate cake mix (recipe here). Eating massive amounts of chocolate is thought to release hormones that might trigger labor. Oooookay, if you insist!

I decided to change it up and incorporate a different Old Wives' Tale; eating pineapple is alleged to have a similar effect. This cake is based around a box of lemon cake mix, with a lemon-pineapple glaze and crushed pineapple in the batter and on top. While I haven't gone into labor yet, I loved passing some slow-moving time in the kitchen. I'll be honest, this cake isn't my finest work (see: boxed cake mix), but definitely a tasty snack that I would make again for an easy crowd-pleaser.

My goal for today is to eat as much of this cake as I can so I can move on to either making something chocolatey or having a baby. Sounds manageable, right?!

1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350F. Generously grease a standard bundt pan with nonstick baking spray. Set the pan aside.

2. Place the cake mix, 1 cup undrained crushed pineapple, sugar, oil, and eggs in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase mixer speed to medium and beat for 2 more minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Pour batter into the prepared pan and place in the oven.

3. Bake until the cake springs back when lightly pressed with your finger and just starts to pull away from the sides of the pan, 45-50 minutes. Remove pan from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes. If necessary, run a long, sharp knife around the edge of the cake. Invert it onto a cake stand or serving platter and allow to cool completely, about 30 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, make the glaze. Drain the remaining 1 cup crushed pineapple and reserve the juice. Combine the confectioners' sugar, 2 tbsp of the reserved pineapple juice, and the lemon juice in a small bowl and stir until smooth.

5. Using a pastry brush, spread the glaze over the cooled cake. Spoon the remaining 1 cup of drained pineapple on top of the glaze. Slice and serve.

2 comments:

Hello Amy,Thanks for the Pineapple Lemon Inside-Out cake recipe.I'll create one for sure, my kids are gonna like it :)If you don't mind, can I submit your Pineapple Lemon Inside-Out cake photo in http://www.foodporn.net ?It's a food photography site full of all DIY food pictures from members around the world. Or perhaps you'd like to submit by yourself? Let me know when you did, so I can share it.